Hiveling
Small, bipedal bee-folk, Hivelings are well known for crafting honey that can be utilized both in cooking and medicine.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Hivelings possess stingers on their bottoms that they can use for offense. Most hivelings stings are simple and small, but the warrior caste often have enlarge stingers that carry a slowing poison.
Genetics and Reproduction
Like Antlings, hiveling eggs hatch will hatch female if fertilized and male if left unfertilized. Eggs are placed in center chambers inside the walls of the hive, above large pools of special honey. Once hatched, grubs eat their way out of the walls and fall into the pools of honey, where they spend the first year of their life consuming the honey.
Growth Rate & Stages
Hivelings spend the first year of their life soaked in honey that provides them essential nutrients and kickstarts their growth. Once they emerge from their pools, they are assigned to their life's role, which they spend learning until they are considered an adult at 13 years of age.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Hivelings live solely off of honey and nectar, cultivating large farms to craft honey and grow flowers inside their hives. They use the pollen of flowers similar to spice, adding it to their nectar for flavor.
Biological Cycle
Hivelings often hole up in their hives during the winter months, as flowers, nectar, and pollen become low in supply. During this time, they focus on breeding, childcare, and training their youth for emergence in the spring.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Hiveling society has a rigid caste system, similar to Antlings. While antlings focus mostly on the rule of law, hivelings focus more on the promotion of the ideal of good, often reaching cult-like levels of fanaticism towards the ideas of selflessness and self-sacrifice. Smaller hives are ruled over by hiveling queens, but larger hives are ruled over by a similar race but more monstrous bee-like race, the Thraie.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Hiveling honey is sought out for its both its sweetness and medicinal properties, with many chefs often try to bargain or steal from nearby hives.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Average Intelligence
While empathetic and perceptive, hivelings place no value on learning things outside of their assigned role, and thus lack basic education outside of their expertise. Many hivelings lack basic reading or writing skills.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Hivelings have darkvision and the ability to see in low-light conditions.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
Hiveling train giant bees as mounts and protectors, and often operate small, regular beehives inside their giant hive-nests.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
In Enthos, Hivelings refer to themselves as ǃuǃʰoᵑǀᵑǃoǃ; roughly translating to "Servant of the Queen".
Beauty Ideals
Hivelings find stripes beautiful, as well as the ability to sing and dance.
Gender Ideals
Hivelings are matriarchal, serving under a Queen who makes the decisions of the hive. Males often serve as scouts and bodyguards, while females take management and construction rolls.
Courtship Ideals
Hivelings lack courtships, as breeding is decided by the queen and the noble caste, but do often give gifts of meals to their friends as a sign of respect.
Relationship Ideals
Hivelings are born together in their hives, and don't have a concept of personal parenthood. The hive itself is the parent of all the hivelings, and each hiveling lives to serve their hive and queen.
Average Technological Level
Hivelings are industries builders, medics, and caretakes, constantly improving on their large hives and coming up with new ways to utilize their honey in both cooking and the treatment of injuries. Some hiveling honey can be applied to wounds that then slowly hardens into a crystalize cast that hastens the healing process.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
A majority of hivelings only speak Enthos and Hive-Dance, and rarely have the wherewithal to learn another language. Those that do are usually ambassadors to the outside world, and can be found also speaking Auran, Common, Terran or Undercommon.
Common Etiquette Rules
Hivelings often use body language to communicate, and use it even more so with non-enthos races who lack the ability to read their pheromones'. Due to the sticky nature of their hives, it is common etiquette for hivelings to groom each other at the end of the day.
Common Dress Code
Hivelings prefer non-cloth clothes that can easily have sticky-substances cleaned from them, as their daily lives often causes them to become covered in honey and other goop.
Common Customs, Traditions and Rituals
Hivelings often throw banquets to celebrate successes of the tribe. Such banquets often include feasts and dances, but the intermingling of the castes at these parties is strictly forbidden.
Common Taboos
Failing to provide for the hive will often lead to beratement and eventual banishment, but actively turning away from the tribe to purse ones own goals or not protecting the tribe from danger will result in execution. Those unwilling to give their life for the hive and flee in acts of cowardice are punished by a slow, tortuous death that involves the injection of potent poisons.
Historical Figures
One of the members of the Nenu-Lan guild, The Court of Misfits, was a hiveling outcast name N'tivi
Common Myths and Legends
A majority of hivelings worship their patron demigod, Esva, the Hive Queen, who is believed to be born from an experiment made from honey imbued with divine power by Hazerial, the Healing Paragon.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Hivelings have relatively good relationships with other races compared to the rest of the Enthos. Many creatures love to trade for their honey, and their reputation as medics causes them to receive a bit more respect than other Enthos. They get into constant conflicts with the Antlings over territory disputes, and have a reasonable fear of Ursan, as they are known to pillage hives for their honey.
Racial Table - Hiveling: Hit Dice: D8; Class Skills: Handle Animal, Heal, Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Nobility), Perception; Skill Ranks Per Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier; Weapon Proficiency: Simple, plus hand crossbows; Armor Proficiency: Light
| Level | BAB | Fort | Reflex | Will | Ablities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1sr | +0 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Flight, Hive Message, Stinger, Vermin Empathy |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +0 | +0 | Hivebond, Swarming |
| 3rd | +2 | +3 | +1 | +1 | Stinger Increase |
| 4th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Hivecasting, +1 Wisdom, +1 Charisma |
| 5th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Renewed Vitality, Stinger Increase |
Random Starting Ages
| Adulthood | Intuitive1 | Self-Taught2 | Trained3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 years | +1d4 years (14 -17) | +1d6 years (14 - 19) | +1d8 years (14 - 21) |
Random Height and Weight
| Gender | Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 2 ft. 2 in. | +2d6 in. (2 ft. 4 in. - 3 ft. 2 in.) | 20 lbs. | +(2d6 lbs.) (22 - 32 lbs.) |
| Female | 2 ft. 4 in. | +2d6 in. (2 ft. 6 in. - 3 ft. 4 in.) | 25 lbs. | +(2d6 lbs. (27 - 37 lbs.) |
Hiveling Aging Table
| Middle Age (-1 to Str, Dex and Con, +1 to Int, Wis and Cha) | Old (-2 to Str, Dex, and Con, +2 to Int Wis and Cha) | Venerable (-3 to Str, Dex and Con, +3 to Int, Wis, and Cha) | Maximum Age (GM secretly decides maximum age) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 years | 42 years | 50 years | 50 + 1d20 years (51 - 70 years) |
Random Hiveling Homelands
| % Rolled | Homeland | Trait Gained |
|---|---|---|
| 01-70 | Mountain Hive | Group Fighter |
| 71-80 | Valley | Weathered Emissary |
| 81-90 | Primal Forest | Undaunted |
| 91-00 | Unusual Homeland | (Roll on Unusual Homeland table) |
Random Hiveling Families
| % Rolled | Parental Status |
|---|---|
| 01-40 | Only Mother is alive |
| 41-70 | Both of your parents are alive |
| 71-90 | Both of your parents are dead |
| 91-00 | Only Father is alive |
| % Rolled | # of Siblings |
|---|---|
| 01-25 | 1d12+12 Siblings |
| 26-38 | 1d10+10 Siblings |
| 39-49 | 1d8+8 Siblings |
| 50-62 | 1d6+6 Siblings |
| 63-72 | 1d4+4 Siblings |
| 73-81 | 1d3+3 Siblings |
| 82-89 | 1d2+2 Siblings |
| 90-95 | 2 Siblings |
| 96-98 | 1 Siblings |
| 99-00 | No siblings |
Lifespan
51 - 70 years
Average Height
2 ft. 6 in. - 3 ft. - 2 in.
Average Weight
22 - 37 lbs
Average Physique
Hivelings are divided into three classes, with each class having distinct morphologies. The worker class resemble honey and bumblebees, the warrior class resemble hornets and wasps, and the final class, the noble class is reserved for a queen hiveling and her attendants.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
A majority of hivelings are black and yellow colored, but some sport brown fur instead.
Geographic Distribution
Hiveling
Type
Vermin (Enthos)
Ability Score Modifier
+2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma, -2 Intelligence: Hivelings are empathic and caring, but are not very bright.
Size
small
Speed
A hiveling has a base speed of 20 feet and a Fly speed of 20 feet (Average maneuverability). This grants the hiveling a +2 racial bonus to Fly checks
Language
A hiveling begins play speaking Enthos, and Hive-dance, a non-verbal gesture language. Hive-dance is a secret language for all-non Enthos races, although it is not forbidden for a Enthos to teach Hive-dance to other races. A hiveling with a high intelligence score can pick from the following languages: Auran, Common, Terran and Undercommon.
- Materil: Hivelings can be tied to either the Air or Love Materil, allowing them to become Windcallers or Loveteachers.
- Darkvision: Hivelings can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.
- Low-light Vision: Hivelings can see twice as far as humans in low-light conditions.
- Hive Message (Ex): Hivelings can easily send messages with their body language. They can effectively send a non-magical message to any creature that can see them an that is fluent in Hive-dance. This ability also grants the Hiveling the ability to roll twice and take the greater result when using the Bluff skill to send secret messages.
- Stinger: Hivelings have a sting natural attack that deals 1d3 points of damage. This attack is a primary natural attack. The stinger’s damage increases to 1d4 at 3rd racial level and 1d6 at 5th racial level.
- Vermin Empathy: All enthos can utilize the Handle Animal skill on vermin creatures, despite them being mindless. An enthos spellcaster can cast spells that normally only affect animals on a vermin creature, and enthos druids can utilize wild empathy on vermin as if they were normal animals. An enthos gains a +4 racial bonus to handling vermin of a similar nature to them.
- Hivebond (Su): Hivelings are used to sharing one mind. Starting at 2nd racial level, as a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, a hiveling can touch a willing, living creature and impart any magical effect affecting it onto them. A hiveling can only move one effect at a time this way. A hiveling cannot transfer effects onto mindless creatures, with the exception of giant bees, wasps, and similar creatures. 1/day for every 2 hit dice the hiveling possesses beyond 2, it can transfer any ongoing effect (magical or non-magical) from another willing creature onto itself with this ability.
- Swarming: Starting at 2nd racial level, a hiveling can share its square with other creatures with swarming. Up to two creatures with swarming can share the same square at the same time. If two creatures that are in the same square attack the same foe, they are considered to be flanking that foe as if they were in opposite squares
- Hivecasting: Starting at 4th racial level, the hiveling treats its caster level as one level higher when casting a spell on an ally.
- Renewed Vitality (Ex): Starting at 5th racial level, a hiveling always heals to full hit points after eight hours of complete rest and removes any temporary negative conditions. A hiveling that spends this time treating the injuries of its allies grants each of them an additional saving throw against any ongoing negative effect afflicting them, such as a disease, poison, or attempting to remove a negative level.
Alternate Racial Traits
- Noble Hiveling (Sp): Some hivelings are a member of the royal caste. Such hivelings gain a +2 racial bonus on all Charisma based skills, and can cast 1/day cast charm animal on any bee, wasp, or hornet like creatures. This trait replaces the Stinger trait
- Scout: Some hivelings specialize in acting as scouts for their hives. These hivelings gain a +2 racial bonus on Knowledge (Geography), Stealth, and Survival checks. These bonuses increase by 1 for every two hit dice beyond the 1st the hiveling possesses. Whenever the hiveling would increase their stinger damage, they instead increase the maneuverability of their Fly speed by one step. This trait replaces the Stinger trait.
- Stinger Poison (Ex): Some hivelings have a potent poison in their stingers. A creature hit by the hivelings stinger attack must make a Fortitude save or suffer the effect of the poison. Hiveling Poison (Ex) Sting - Injury; save Fort DC (10 + ½ the hiveling’s HD + the hiveling’s Con modifier), Frequency 1/round for 6 rounds, Effects 1d2 Dexterity damage, Cure one consecutive save. A creature that has successfully saved against a hiveling’s poison cannot be affected by the same hiveling’s poison for 24 hours. A hiveling is immune to the poison of another hiveling. This trait replaces the Hive Message trait.
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